Ophir as it is today

Ophir
The site of Australia's first significant gold discovery.
Ophir (pronounced 'o-fa' as in 'sofa') is an uninhabited recreation reserve with picnic and camping facilities at the confluence of Summer Hill Creek and Lewis Ponds Creek, a tributary of the Macquarie River. It is located in a gorge, 29 km north-east of Orange and 273 km north-west of Sydney. It is here that Australia's first payable gold was located in April 1851.

The area was known to its original inhabitants, the Wiradjuri people, as 'Drunong Drung'. This is said to mean 'many snakes' as they were apparently attracted to what was a very reliable water source. To the early European settlers it was known as 'Yorkey's Corner' after a reclusive shepherd from Yorkshire who kept his flock here.

A Sydney jeweller tried to make the government aware of the gold traces he discovered there in 1849, with no success. In February 1851 Edward Hargraves, who had garnered some experience and success at the California goldfields, together with John Lister, turned up a pan of gold-bearing gravel at the junction of Lewis Ponds Creek and Summer Hill Creek. But the find was of little value and appeared to lead nowhere so Hargraves temporarily abandoned the search.

However, the nature of Australia's society, demographics and economy were significantly affected in April when William Tom spotted a 14-gram nugget in a rock bar (named FitzRoy Bar, after Governor Fitzroy) near the intersection of the two creeks. He, his brother James, and John Lister turned their attention to the adjacent creek bed, turning up 113 g over the next three days, including a 55-gram nugget. The trio then informed Hargraves who took the gold to Sydney where he showed it to the colonial secretary and after some negotiations revealed the whereabouts of the find.

Hargraves was recognised by the NSW government as 'the first discoverer of gold in Australia'. This is patently false. Many had done so before him. The Ophir find was the first PAYABLE gold strike but that must be credited to Lister and the Tom brothers. Nonetheless it is Hargraves who was the chief beneficiary. He was paid £10 500 by the NSW government and, in 1877, was granted an annuity of £250 a year for the rest of his life. He also received £2381 from the Victorian government and was asked by the West Australian government to prospect there in 1862, albeit without success. Hargraves travelled to England in 1854 where he was presented to Queen Victoria and he published a book entitled Australia and Its Goldfields in 1855. To his credit he did initiate the search at Ophir and used his Californian experience to propagated the usage of the gold-washing pan and cradle.

Within weeks of the public announcement there were 400 prospectors in the field and Australia's first goldrush was underway. William Tom's father suggested the name 'Ophir', after a region in the Old Testament noted for its fine gold. There were soon hotels, sly grog shops, blacksmiths and stores of wood and canvas, as well as a police station made of logs and the commissioner's camp, consisting of tents and a slab-and-bark cookhouse. A second settlement called Newtown emerged at Tinkers Point. It has been said there were 2000 diggers on-site at the peak of the rush in mid-1851. This is difficult to confirm or deny as, although there were only 446 licenses issued in July 1851, many prospectors worked on the sly and would disappear at the approach of the police. However, easier prospects at the Turon fields, a bleak wet winter and the general hardship of goldmining soon saw numbers dwindle. Consequently, despite a town plan and a few allotment sales, a town never developed. Only 84 licenses, which had to be renewed monthly, were issued in August 1852. To all intents and purposes the rush was over by the end of that year.

A small number of hardy diggers stayed on. They were joined in the mid-1850s by a Chinese prospectors who, as they so often did, reworked earlier diggings with good success. They camped on the flats below Murray's Hill and their earthen water races can still be found in the hills.

The Belmore Reef was discovered in 1866 and reef mining was pursued into the 1890s to the south of the junction. The veins were rich in gold but often short-lived. In the 1890s Doctors Hill became the central focus and a small settlement developed there, although flooding of the shafts proved a major problem. Mining still occurs beneath this hill.

Copper was mined at Lewis Ponds in the 1860s and 1870s and silver, lead and zinc in the 1880s.

The reserve has, for obvious reasons, continued to attract fossickers and, in the late 1970s, a 5.22 kg nugget generated renewed interest.

Things to see:  

The river at Ophir Reserve

Tourist Information
Orange Visitors Centre, Civic Square, Byng St, tel: (02) 6361 5226. There is a pamphlet called 'A Visitor's Guide to Ophir' which includes historical information and a detailed map of the site. It also outlines four walking trails.

The Ophir Reserve
The reserve has picnic, barbecue and camping facilities. The walking trails outlined in the visitor's guide identify the historical importance of numerous sites and help to identify various relics. They take in the whereabouts of the original 1851 gold strike and of the 1866 Belmore Reef find, earthen water races, a rare stone gravity-fed water race (c.1890) for washing the crushed quartz from the stamper batteries, abandoned tunnels, old diggings, a flagstone causeway, mullock heaps, the remains of a flying fox and the old cemetery. One tombstone identifies Charlie Corse who received a bullet in the head when he dared Richard Spencer to shoot him in a dispute over a saddle (Spencer received a short sentence in Bathurst prison). There is also an obelisk to commemorate the historical importance of the site, built in 1923. You can also fossick for gold or fish for trout.

Gunnadoo Gold Mine